Kingdom Hearts Roadtrip
by Chatting Airborne
Summary: Roxas and his friends are going on a road trip- but when they get lost down a country road, they suspect some sinister deeds going on in the area...what will happen next? silliness and suspense ensue!
1. Prologue

**I must thank you for reading this new fanfic! This first chapter is just kind of like the prologue. I haven't decided what kind of story this is going to be yet. But, I hope you all like it- please read on to the second chapter! I know you will love it! **

Roxas woke up, realizing that he was lying on the floor of his bedroom. He tried to get up, and a pain shot up his back. Turning around slowly, he noticed that his desk chair was upended. The back rest was in the shape of a star, and one of the tips of it had stuck into his back.

Gingerly, he stood up, trying to ignore the pain in his back, and then he hobbled over to the mirror near his door. Pulling his shirt over his head, he turned around and tried to examine the state of his back. There was a big yellowish purple bruise in the middle of it. Roxas, groaned, and hobbled back to his chair, picking it up, and setting it up right again. Then he heard his bedroom door creak open.

Roxas' mom peeped in, and blushed a little bit. "Oh, I thought that you were still asleep!" she said, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "You're up pretty early."

Roxas frowned. "Wait, do you always come into my room while I'm still asleep?"

Roxas' mother twiddled her thumbs, shrugging. "Well, you just look so cute, Roxie! Like when you were a little baby and I held you in my arms…" Her eyes started to tear up as she said this, and she mimicked holding a baby in her arms. "If only we could've had another one after you…" then she started to sob, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket. Roxas rolled his eyes, and maneuvered her over to the bed, sitting her down and patting her on the back.

"It all started in the first grade." She sobbed, rocking Roxas back and forth, and crying all over him. "Usually you'd run over and climb into my lap, but that fateful day, a little while before you went to your first day of grade school, you walked into the living room with your hands clasped behind your back. Then, you told me 'mom, I'm a big boy now, and I can't be sitting in your lap anymore.' Your brother Ven still sat in my lap long after that, but I suppose it was all as a kind of apology for when he'd decide to run away and join that band. He'll only come back some sort of addict, now, with hoards of children he never knew." This only made her cry more, and she tried to force Roxas to sit on her lap so she could properly rock him back and forth. She grabbed him on the back where his bruise was, and he cried out in pain.

"I didn't know that you were sad about it, too, Roxas!" She said as she noticed tears of agony rolling down Roxas' cheeks. His back was killing him. "Mommy's here, baby! We can still reconnect! Even if your brother is gone, I still have you, honey!" She pulled Roxas into her lap, and rocked him this way and that, petting his hair and singing an old lullaby called 'dearly beloved' that he'd always liked. This went on for a full twenty minutes, until the pain in Roxas' back went down a little bit, and he started fidgeting. If his friends had seen any of this, it would have been the end of his social life. Then, he broke free, and went over to his desk.

Roxas turned around, thinking his mother had already left the room, when he heard a gasp from behind him. He turned around, and saw that his mother was still at the door, and was pointing towards his back with wide, teary eyes. "You've been brutally beaten up!" she howled, running over and turning Roxas around. Then, she turned him around again, looking him in the eye with a determined stare.

"Who did it?" she growled, looking out the window. "You just tell me who did it and I'll find 'em! They won't be messing with my baby anymore. It was that Seifer wasn't it? I never trusted him- or did Hayner turn on you?"

Roxas pushed his mom away from him. "MOM! Calm down, I guess that I fell out of bed in my sleep, and my back hit one of the ends of my chair." He said slowly, pointing to his desk chair. His mom furrowed her eyebrows.

"How did your desk chair get all the way in front of your bed?" She asked, scratching her head. Roxas shrugged. "I must have set it there, or something. I was so tired from trying to control that party last night that I could barely walk! I just fell asleep in my clothes. That's probably why I'm up late too…" Roxas blurted all this out before checking to see the expression on his mother's face.

"Party? I thought you said that you invited your friends over for a little bit of cake and ice cream. How many people did you invite? There wasn't any drinking involved was there?"

Roxas could tell that his mom was getting nervous and upset again.

"Like I told you, I only invited some close friends."

"You invited that Axel character didn't you?" His mother's voice began to rise in volume and in pitch. His mother had always hated Axel. She thought he was a bad influence, and it bothered her that he was about 5 years older than Roxas. He also had a bad reputation for being a heartbreaker/troublemaker, and Roxas' mother hated those types of people. Roxas sighed.

"Mom, he's my best friend. Remember my first day of secondary school? How I went to that weird boarding school, and I was nervous and I didn't know anyone? He was the only guy there who helped me out- and the only guy who would be my friend."

Roxas' mother folded her arms over her chest, shrugging nonchalantly. "From what I remember, all of them were terrible, uncaring people. And he was just the same."

Roxas threw his hands up, and went to look out the window, breathing in the fresh air from outside. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied his mother looking around his room, pursing her lips.

"You know maybe we shouldn't go get a car for you today. Why can't you just take the train like everyone else? If you're injuring yourself in your _sleep, _who knows what damage you'll do on the road."

Roxas chuckled, shaking his head. "It's not like I'm gonna use it all the time! I just want to…" What could he tell his mom he was planning on doing with the car? 'Hey mom, I'm gonna go on a road trip with my friends!' That did _not _sound like something she'd want to hear.

"…I just want to use it for farther distances, like what would happen if the train broke or something one day? Or, if I was, was…" he tried to revise his answer, searching his brain for the perfect response, when he noticed that his mother wasn't listening to him at all. She was looking around his room again.

"You have a lot of stuff from your childhood in this room. You liked stars a lot. And that fish lamp- your father got you that when you were seven. That was a long time ago. We may need to get rid of that. Aren't old lamps dangerous? Those fish look like they're rotating abnormally. And that star chair… I never liked the make of that star chair…" She went around to almost every childhood memory filled article in his room, discussing how it was very juvenile, and possibly dangerous. "This could collapse on you on the day you go to your debs! All decked out in your suit, with your date downstairs and boom! We find you underneath your old childhood dresser, never to dance with the beautiful girl again. Or anyone for that matter, no wedding, just anemones." Then she began singing an old song that she'd heard on the radio one time, and flitted out of Roxas' room.

Roxas shivered slightly, thinking about just how heavy the dresser at the side of his room was. It wouldn't fall though, would it? His magazines would hold it down pretty well. Then Roxas' eyes widened, and he felt for a moment a tinge of guilt. What if his mom was implying that she knew about the magazines? They weren't even his- Axel had stored them in Roxas' house because he didn't want his girlfriend finding them, and he'd never taken them back! Sure, Roxas had looked at a _few, _at the most five or six, but it was all Axel's fault!

He threw his dresser open, looking at the bottom. The magazines looked completely untouched. He looked at the top one, shrugging. It had a picture of a _very _scantily clad woman on the front, and on the side of the cover- it read in bold letters 'interview with 'Birth by Sleep', the hottest new band in town!'

Roxas chuckled. He'd never even noticed that. He flipped to the page with the interview, and sure enough, his brother was there, along with his two other band mates, Aqua and Terra. Roxas had met them once, on their way to a party, but it was just for about five minutes while Ven got ready to go. It had been their first big time performance. He looked at the cover page of the interview, at a picture of the three band mates, posing with cool expressions and perfect hair and outfits. Roxas smiled timidly, kicking his shoes off as he noticed Aqua's expression. She was so cool! Too bad she wasn't in the _rest _of the magazine.

It started off with them asking the obvious question 'how did you guys meet?' Terra answered that he and Ven had known each other from school, and they had been looking around for a drummer for their group, when they stumbled across Aqua. She was the cousin of this kid that they knew, and they just happened to hear her jamming out on her drum upstairs.

'_Terra: The reaction was immediate, we knew we needed her, we'd never heard anything like her before._

_Ven: Yeah, she was awesome- it was like magic the way she fit with us so well. We had asked around after a few drummers, but none of them matched our sound._

_Terra: It takes a certain drummer to fit to Ven's singing style._

_Aqua: They just ran up to my room, all breathless, and asked if I wanted to be in their band. _

_Ven: We really lifted off from there, we signed down to play at every bar and club that we could- we did countless jobs, we even played at a wedding. _

_Aqua: Wedding's suck._

_Ven: Yeah, then, we got enough money together to do a recording session, and we put our music onto a CD. We put it all up online, and we got to sell our CD's in coffee shops and stuff like that._

_Terra: We worked small, you know. _

_Aqua: Then, we started getting calls from record companies and stuff, and we finally decided to stick with this one label, 'Land of Departure', because we felt that they were really trying to work with our interests in mind._

_Terra: It's funny; the name's so fitting, because after we signed with them, we really just skyrocketed up from there. We just worked with another band on their new album, 'Seven'. _

_Ven: They're these seven little guys- and they've got a lead singer that's a girl, it was fun working with her on the vocals. _

_Terra: Was it just the vocals, Ven? (Laughs)_

_Aqua: But seriously, they've got some pipes on them. I mean, they can sing like crazy. _

_Ven: Yeah, then we toured with them for a little while. We played at this really nice place, the 'Castle of Dreams' for this huge concert that was being held._

_Terra: Usually the place was super posh, but we brought the house down! It was great, lots of artists played at that._

_Aqua: I think that that was really when we became 'known.''_

Roxas read on through the whole article, admiring how intelligent Aqua sounded. He was suddenly jealous of his brother for getting to be in a band with her. Roxas could sing just as well as him!

Roxas stood up, clearing his throat. Then he bellowed a note out to the world. He decided to try and sing one of the songs that Ven and his band had done, and he heard his mom knocking on the door.

"Honey." She said nervously, peeping in again. "Did you trip and hurt your back again? I heard you squawking."

Roxas' shoulders fell, and he sighed deeply. "Yeah, I tripped." He said flatly, and his mother told him that he needed to be more careful.

"There's breakfast downstairs waiting for you, darling. Come and eat, don't lock yourself in your bedroom the whole day." Then she went back downstairs.

Roxas decided that he didn't need to become a singer. He rummaged through some of the other magazines to see if there were any other articles on the band, but there were none. The one he had just read was the newest magazine of the pile. He decided that he needed to return all of this stuff _back _to Axel so that he could do what he wanted with it.

But first, he needed to find his money for the car. He went over to his desk, and searched through the drawers, then he searched through his dresser, and under his bed, and in his clothes basket, and under the lamp, and everywhere else in his room. Then he moved on to the rest of the house, pulling things out of drawers, and going crazy with panic. He had saved up for ages to go on this trip! If he just lost all his money, everyone else would be so disappointed in him. He tried not to think about the fact that if _all _of them had pooled together their money, they could've shared the car. He didn't want to be selfish.

Eventually, he came into the kitchen with tears in his eyes, and he took to gobbling down his breakfast as fast as he could. His mother had left a note on the table saying that she had gone out for the day with a friend. Roxas looked around the house once more, and then tried to take a relaxing bath (he'd heard that they were soothing) but decided to opt for the shower, when he fell into the bath and hit the sore spot on his back off the edge.

He hunched over in pain right in front of the shower, and then he patted the area that hurt on his back. Even touching it made it hurt. It would be hard driving the car with his back the way it was. After he'd had the shower, he decided to go over to Axel's house to wallow and to recruit him to help find the money.

He went outside, got on his bike, and cycled down town, until he was out of Twilight Town and headed down to where Axel lived. After about ten minutes of cycling, he regretted his decision to not just take the train, because it was hurting his back again. What had he done to himself? He tried to ignore it, as the summer sun beat down on him, willing himself forward. He finally got to Axel's house, and barely found the strength in himself to ring the doorbell.

When Axel opened the door, Roxas immediately let go of his bike, shoved past him, and slumped onto his couch, crying out as his back hit a box that had been laying on the couch.

"Dammit, Axel! Why do you just shove all your stuff onto the couch! People are supposed to sit on it!" he croaked angrily wiping the tears out of his eyes. Axel slumped down beside him, not listening. Roxas sighed. "What's the matter, big boy?" he said, patting Axel on the shoulder. Axel shrugged, looking glumly out his window. He was rarely like this.

"I'm losing my sex appeal." Axel said, as though his heart had been crushed. Roxas broke out laughing, gingerly removing the box from behind him. It was a present that was still wrapped up. Axel didn't find the situation as funny as Roxas did, though.

"I was having sex with my girlfriend, just yesterday. It was her birthday." He said mystically, looking off into the distance. Roxas sat back, preparing to half listen.

"You know, it was a nice day out, warm, not too humid, sun was shining. She came home all happy and stuff, they'd had a surprise party for her at the office. I was waiting for her at the door, you know, because it was her birthday, and people usually don't mind having sex on their birthdays. And I just got so nervous. I never get nervous." He added flatly at the end. Then he continued on. "I said hi, and she said hi back, all giggly. And I said 'well, I suppose you'd want to have sex, right?' and I tell you, Roxas, the smile just faded. It completely faded." Axel said, getting a bit upset.

Roxas shook his head. "Why would you say that to a girl?"

Axel looked at him for a moment then shrugged, really thinking about it.

"It just makes them think that they're forcing you to have sex, and girls don't like that, Axel. They like to be the one's on the receiving end. When they feel like _they're _the ones asking for it, they get all guilty and sometimes they just want you to go at them! You don't have to say 'okay, by the way, I'm gonna come onto you now.' It's hard to explain but, gosh, I can't believe that _I'm _the one talking to _you _about this! I thought that you were the ladies' man!"

Axel sighed, looking forward again. "Those where the late high school, early college days. I'm in my last year now, and I don't feel fresh and spunky anymore. I don't know what I want anymore. It was the studying. That stupid Zexion convinced me to do study time with him on weekdays. He sucked the sex energy out of me and converted it into study energy. And now all I can do is study. I just don't know how to get it back." Axel sighed, and then he remembered his story.

"But, anyway, then she just shrugged and said 'if you want to', and I shrugged and said 'well it _is _your birthday' and then she went on about how I made her feel like I was her sex slave. And I asked if she'd like that, and then I think that instilled some hope for the future of the evening into her. Then, when I was doing it with her- I was trying to feel it, to get in the mood, I swear- but it was just dead Roxas!" He grabbed Roxas by the shoulders and got all misty eyed. "When I took it out, it just flopped over, like a dead fish!" he cried, waving his hand in imitation of a dead fish. Then he sat back, reflecting.

"She didn't scream or anything, she didn't even moan. She just lay there, and at one point she was looking at her nails. She'd just gotten them done with a friend of hers for her birthday. Then, after it was all over, we were sitting on the couch watching her favorite movie, mean girls; she broke the news to me."

Roxas gasped, grabbing Axel by the hand. "She was pregnant?" he shouted, gaping at Axel. Axel frowned. "What? No- no way. Why would you even…what? No…" Roxas looked away, folding his arms in front of him. "Oh, well, never mind. I just thought, you know…anyway, what happened next?" Roxas said brightly, changing the subject.

Axel sighed, nodding as if it had to be said. "She said I was lousy in bed." He voice cracked on the last word, and he started to cry. Roxas sat awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do. He kind of patted Axel on the back, then Axel grabbed Roxas by the shirt and started crying into it. Roxas rolled his eyes. This had happened once before when they were both in secondary school. It had been the first and last year the two had been in the same school together.

Axel went on, crying in between talking and breathing. "And then, she said that I sucked all the happiness out of her, and I made her feel like she was ugly and sexiless, or whatever, and then she said that I sickened her. And then she ignored me for the rest of the day. And then she left early this morning to 'have fun'." Axel looked up at Roxas, with snot on his nose, and tears all around his eyes, even on his forehead. His face was puffy and red, and he looked a mess.

"I may sound like a dumb f*** complaining like this- but the sex was all I had! No one ever said 'oh look at smart Axel, or look at cool Axel, or angry Axel, or bitchy Axel, they said look at Sexy Axel."

Roxas shook his head. "No they didn't."

"I bet they thought it." Axel snapped back, letting go of Roxas' shirt. "You know, usually, I always felt something around everyone. Maybe it was the teenage hormones running rampant, but I mean, even you Roxas" Axel said, smiling towards Roxas "I even felt a tinge of energy around you!"

Roxas scratched his head uncomfortably nodding and looking away. "I hope that you're not planning on breaking out that energy on me right now, are you?" Roxas said jokingly, and to his surprise, Axel shook his head blankly, as if he hadn't even been thinking about it.

"Nah, I just don't feel like having sex these days. I mean, I guess I do it too much. I mean, Larxene is good in that way that she keeps _hoping _that _this_ time I'll satisfy her. But it never happened. Slowly I lost any go in me at all- and it just became this drive to prove myself. But, again, it never happened."

"Wait, you're going out with Larxene again? Isn't she heavy on the verbal abuse?"

Axel smiled. "Oh, yes. But she does some pretty good dirty talk. Well, did anyway. Now she just insults me. She laughed when I cried in front of her once." Roxas got up, retrieving a few tissues for Axel.

"I don't really know what to say, Axel, other than I'm sorry." Roxas said as Axel blew his nose.

"There's nothing to say" replied Axel, putting the tissue in the trash and wiping the tears out of his eyes. "But thanks for listening anyway."

Roxas smiled. "No problem, dude. But, listen. That's not what I came here for. I want you to help me look for the money I was gonna use to buy the road trip car, with. It must be in my house somewhere, unless someone stole it." He noticed Axel looking a little bit nervous.

"There was about $2,000 in all. I had it in my room." Roxas added, examining Axel closely, who had become very interested in his shoes.

"Uh, you know that I was really drunk last night, and you were a bit too. And we wanted to papier-mâché the lamp in your basement, and we couldn't find any paper, and you said it was okay…" Axel stumbled for the right words, and he could see Roxas' expression darkening.

"I was drunk, that's why I said yes. What did you do?" Roxas growled, and Axel laughed nervously.

"Well, we papier-mâchéd the money to the lamp with some super glue that you had in the basement."

Axel thought he could see real steam coming out of Roxas' nose and ears, and before he could get anywhere near to the door in case he needed to make a run for it, Roxas had him on the ground, pulling his hair.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" Roxas roared, with tears rolling down his cheeks. It had taken him ages to save all that money! Various jobs and odds and ends had all brought him to this huge disappointment.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Axel shouted, trying to shield himself from Roxas' blows. "What can I do to make you forgive me?" Axel asked, and Axel let up.

"Help me get all those stupid magazines of yours out of my room. And we're gonna sell ALL of them to make up for the money that you lost."

Axel laughed, shaking his head. "There aren't enough magazines in there to cover all that money."

"Then you can be the one to break the news to the others- and we'll all just have to split the car cost anyway." Roxas snapped.

"Okay, okay. Let's go sell some dirty magazines." Axel chuckled, and they both left the house on their bikes. When they did finally get to Roxas' house, they were exhausted, but they went down to the basement anyway to see the damage. His mother's old lamp that her father had gotten her when she was twenty was in the middle of the floor, with money glued all over it. A few bills were strewn around, and Roxas yelled with delight to find a hundred dollar bill that had survived. In all, they saved a hundred and twenty. Then he looked over at Axel. "Let's get those magazines." He said somberly, and Axel nodded as they both made their way up to Roxas' room.

They dug them all out from inside Roxas' dresser, and Axel got an old box to put them all in. Just a few short seconds after they started to pile them into the box, Axel started to look through them again. He sighed with nostalgia at a picture of the model 'Cinderella', shaking his head happily. "I remember those days. Me and the boys from our little 'study group', Organization Thirteen- we really were stuck up idiots back then- all called her the golden girl. We made bets on who would woo her one day. And I always won!" Axel said proudly, getting a little more confident. Roxas looked at him coolly.

"What do you think appealed to the girls?" Roxas said politely, a different tone from the regular laidback one he used around his friend. But Axel didn't bother to notice.

"Oh, it was definitely the mane." He said with a smug grin. "These fiery locks would make any chick melt in my arms!" he said, mimicking a girl swooning. "My green eyes, and my natural red hair, and also my tattoos on my cheeks- did I ever tell you girls used to lick them?" Axel said brightly, and Roxas sighed in annoyance.

Axel chuckled. "It just made the whole package. I was beautiful." He sighed, and Roxas began to get annoyed with him again. He'd gotten so _girly _since he'd gone into college. Maybe Zexion really did have a bad influence on him- and Larxene's abuse couldn't be good for a man's feeling of, well, _manliness. _It was probably a bit of Marluxia's fault, too. They all went to the same college together.

Axel looked down at another magazine, setting it into a little pile he had beside him. Roxas frowned at him. "Hey Axel, those magazines are going in the box, right? Because we're gonna sell them all to make up for the money that you mutilated."

"Aw, come on, Roxas. I just want to keep a few of them, that's all." Axel whined, pouting as he pointed to another picture of Cinderella- this time wearing a sky blue thong. Roxas blushed and looked way. Axel chuckled.

"Well, looks like the little tyke can't handle a few _dirty pictures._" Axel sniggered arching his eyebrows at Roxas. Roxas got defensive, shrugging. "No, she's just not that great. I've seen better." Roxas drawled, peeping subtly at Axel every few seconds to see his reaction. Axel didn't believe a word of it.

"Oh really." He said, grinning slyly at Roxas. "You got a VCR?" Axel piped up, pointing to the mangled old device lying in the corner of Roxas' room. Roxas laughed. "Oh, that's ancient. I don't even know if it works anymore." Axel was rummaging through the pile of magazines Roxas had set on the floor, awaiting judgment, and pulled out an old video cassette. Then, he scooted over to the VCR, plugged it in, turned it on, and stuck the tape inside. The screen was fuzzy for a second, but Axel banged on the top of it, and the screen came on, playing the movie.

At first, there was a small paragraph as to how taping the movie would result in a fine. It was obvious that Axel had taped the movie from the TV, because every few seconds he would make comments. Roxas had a bad feeling about where things were going, and his fears only mounted when the scene came up on a naked girl lying on a bed, with Axel hollering in the background. Axel chuckled.

"I was maybe, thirteen when I taped this thing- my first dose of porn." Axel said, sighing. He went into flashback mode again, and shook his head happily. "Those were the days of dreaming about when my first would come along. Actually, it didn't come too long after that." He scratched his head, trying to remember the first time.

"Sheila." He whispered to himself, and then smiled again. "Yep, it was terrible. I got in lots of practice after that, though." He added cheekily, eyeing Roxas to see what he would do. He ignored Axel, and tried to take his eyes away from the screen. Axel chuckled again.

"You know, I bet that you can't look at that screen for more than five minutes." Axel drawled, and Roxas snorted.

"May I ask what we're betting?"

Axel thought for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders. "If you make it through this, I will voluntarily sell all of these magazines, plus the extras lying around at home and I will donate some money to the car." Axel finished smugly, noticing that Roxas had paused the VCR. He was such a cheater. Roxas smiled with a touch of determination at Axel.

"You really don't think that I'll make it, do you?" Roxas said quietly, and Axel shrugged.

"You know what, Roxas? You were always a goody two shoes. You never told dirty stories. You've never done it, you've never watched porn- you haven't even masturbated, have you?" Axel shot at Roxas, who blushed.

"That's kind of private, Axel. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't."

Axel laughed. "I'd stick with the latter. You're just dead down there, Roxas, you always have been. You're so thick in the skull that you don't know what's going on around you. To be honest, I think you're uncomfortable with sex in general."

Roxas was squirming around a lot now, and he had gotten into the 'caged weasel' mode. Roxas could be pretty mean when he wanted to.

"Ha. I haven't even started with the sexual prowess thing, and you're already finished with yours. Must be nice knowing that you'll be sitting at home eating while I'm out getting some." Roxas snapped, and he sensed that he'd hurt Axel.

Axel kind of shifted from side to side, and he slipped back into his 'depressed distressed' state that he'd been in before. "You cut me deep, brother. You cut me deep."

Roxas sighed, not feeling like apologizing. "Just turn on the stupid movie." He growled, folding his arms over his chest, as if preparing to barricade himself from the coming onslaught. Axel looked over at him uncaringly, knowing that he wouldn't make it. Then he decided to make the stakes higher.

"If you lose, you also have to call Kairi and tell her how sexy she is." Axel added brightly, and Roxas' mouth dropped open. "Since when was that part of the bargain?" Roxas said hoarsely, clutching the zipper on the front of his jacket like it would fall apart if he let it go. Axel laughed maniacally.

"The stakes are getting higher!" He said gleefully, and pressed the 'play' button on the machine. Roxas' eyes wandered away from the screen, and Axel snapped his finger in front of the boy.

"No wandering eyes, Roxas. Or you start over."

Roxas looked at him angrily, and then directed his eyes towards the screen again. The naked girl had a music box in her hand, and she was talking to a person that was off screen. Roxas could hardly hear what they were saying because all that could be hears was the sound of VCR Axel commenting on the girls 'finely toned ass'. Roxas snorted as the man came on stage and took the music box away. He shook his head, smiling. "Stupid story lines. Why do they even try?" Then he tried to force a laugh, but he stopped in the middle, when the camera changed views, and there was a full view of the girls arse. Roxas immediately looked away, and Axel clapped, pausing the VCR again.

"You get to start over, Roxie!" Axel said, clapping his hands. Roxas pounded his fist on the ground, trying to search for something he could say to change Axel's mind. "Wait, that's not fair! It was just for a second, I saw a spider, I swear!" He said, getting flustered, but Axel started the movie up again, and Roxas looked at the screen in anguish.

The man was now kissing the girl in an extreme close up on their lips. Roxas heard Axel's voice on the tape saying 'tongue action, awesome' and then a chuckle. Roxas grinded his teeth in anger as he heard Axel laugh behind him. "This is a good part." Axel said, and Roxas was afraid that another 'pop up' would happen. It did.

Roxas forced himself to keep his eyes on the screen as the man stuck his finger up the girls arse. Axel started laughing like crazy as Roxas tried to squint his eyes so he could see the least possible screen action. "You can't do that, Roxas, eyes open, that was the deal- you can't cheat like usual."

Roxas began to get very fidgety as the man unbuttoned his trousers. Axel watched his mouth, and saw that he was counting to himself. Axel started to get nervous, looking at the clock, but Roxas began to smile wide. "Hey, Axel, guess how many minutes it's been- four and a quarter!" Then Roxas giggled. Axel counted off seconds, trying to think of a diversion. He leaned into Roxas' ear.

"She's nice isn't she Roxas? What would she think in real life if you were watching her when she was like this?"

It was obvious that this comment made Roxas uncomfortable, but he was determined to win the bet. "I'm not looking at her the same way you did, Axel." Roxas snapped, counting off more time. Axel bit his lip. "Told you that you were dead down there, Roxas." Axel snarled, and Roxas just chuckled. "I'm winning." He said happily, and then Roxas smiled like a Cheshire cat. "Five, four, three…" Roxas began to count down, and then the front door opened downstairs.

"Roxas!" His mother called from downstairs, and Roxas pounced for the VCR, turned it off, threw the tape out the window, and shoved all the magazines back into his closet before his mother came into his room. He was red as a cherry, and Axel was grinning giddily.

Roxas' mother looked from the VCR, to Roxas, then to Axel, and back to Roxas again.

"What's going on?" She said slowly, and Roxas started to stutter, trying to find something to say. "I, uh, I, uh…" He couldn't get out anything, so Axel talked for him. "Roxas and I were just talking about our feelings." Axel said flatly, and Roxas' mother looked suspicious.

"Feelings?" she questioned slowly, and Axel nodded.

"Yep- who knew I had them too." He added cheekily, and Roxas slapped his hand to his face as his mother balled her hands into fists, and forced a smile.

"Well- you two have fun together. Don't get into any trouble or you're out of this house. I mean it." She added dangerously, sending a death glare over Axel's way. He just looked away nonchalantly, blowing out a deep breath. Then, Roxas' mother left, and Roxas and Axel exchanged glances. Axel was grinning.

"Guess who's calling Kairi." Axel started to sing, and Roxas jumped up.

"I can still get the tape. It's outside." Roxas said in a panic, and Axel snorted.

"Yeah- out the window outside. It's probably smashed to pieces." Axel drawled, and Roxas dashed out of the room and down the stairs. His mother didn't have time to ask where he was going, when Axel bounded off behind him, out into the front yard.

Just as Axel exited the front door, he heard Roxas scream, and he poked his head out to see what was going on. Roxas was standing, horrified, beside what was left of the tape. A car was pulled over right beside him.

"Did I hit a dog?" The man in the car said hurriedly, jumping out of the vehicle and trying to see what he'd run over.

"I was so close." Roxas whispered in anguish, and then he turned around and grabbed the man by the shirt.

"I was so effing close!" He screamed at the man, and Axel came over and patted him on the back.

"Roxas, it was probably broken before the car even ran it over."

Roxas looked up at Axel with misty eyes as the man got back in the car and drove off. He smiled at Axel. "I was this close!" He whispered, pinching his thumb and index finger together. Axel sighed. "I know you were buddy." He said mercifully, and Roxas let out a sigh of relief. Then Axel smiled evilly at Roxas.

"I think it would be best if we went to my house to call Kairi." Axel drawled, watching all the emotions on Roxas' face as he let it sink in.

First Roxas was puzzled, then he was scared, then he was shaking his head in denial, then he was doing the puppy dog stare, then he was angry, and then he was hopeless. Axel laughed through the whole show, which only made Roxas despise him more. Axel chuckled. He was always letting Roxas off easy.

"Tell you what, Roxas. If you call Kairi, I will sell all my magazines, I don't even want them anymore. But you have to appeal to everyone else for the rest of the money for the car. I'm not donating."

Roxas nodded, as if in a dream state, and floated out after Axel towards the train station. They had ridden their bikes enough that day. It was easier to take the train.

When they both got to Axel's house, he was humming 'Ring of Fire' by Johnny Cash, and looking over at Roxas every other second with a sly smile. Roxas worried the whole way to the house, and his fingers were raw from him wringing his hands together.

Axel lead Roxas inside his house and over to the phone like the boy was going to the gallows, and he sat Roxas down in front of his telephone with a look of evil relish. Roxas looked from him to the telephone somberly and then back up to Axel, working the puppy dog eyes like they would save his life.

"Do I have to?" Roxas gulped, but Axel had known Roxas long enough to be immune to this whole charade.

"Oh yes- and I'm gonna love every minute of it." Axel said happily, getting another phone, and going off into the hallway to listen in on the conversation. He held the thumbs up sign to Roxas, and he dialed. There was a ringing sound, and then Kairi answered the phone.

"Hello." She said brightly, and waited for a reply.

"Hi." Roxas said blankly, and Kairi chuckled.

"Who is this? Is it you, Roxas?" She added hopefully, and Roxas looked over at Axel for mercy. Axel shook his head.

"It's me." Roxas croaked, failing to elaborate. There was a silence across the line, and then Kairi coughed.

"Well, what did you call me for?" She said quietly. Roxas furrowed his eyebrows. She was talking sort of weird- like she was excited about something?

"Uh…" Roxas started, and then forced himself to take a deep breath. "I think that you're really sexy." Roxas blubbered, and sucked in a deep breath at the end, not knowing what to do next. There was silence on the other end of the line, and then Kairi giggled a little bit.

"Really? I never knew that you thought of me that way. I think you're sexy too. I think about you sometimes…" Kairi said nervously, and Roxas was touched by her confession. Then he remembered that Axel was listening across the line. He tried to signal for Axel to hang up and let him talk alone, but Axel wouldn't have it. He kept listening in.

"Don't you like Sora?" Roxas croaked in desperation. He heard Kairi laugh.

"Sora's kind of boring. He's such a kid. You're more mature- and mysterious, I guess. I don't know, I sound stupid. This is embarrassing." She said quietly, but Roxas knew that she was really smiling across the line. He blushed, and noticed Axel trying to stifle a laugh across the line.

"I can hang up now." Roxas said, but Kairi said no.

"Don't hang up- I want to talk to you. Do you want to get together sometime? I hope you don't think that I'm too fast or anything- I'm not a whore, contrary to popular belief." Kairi added flatly, and Roxas was quiet. Kairi took this as a 'why', and she decided to continue.

"Maybe hanging out with Selphie rubbed off on me. Part of the reason people think of me that way is because I hang out with her, and people said I had Riku and Sora running after me all the time. And just because Namine and Xion are dead down there, doesn't mean I have to hold back my feelings when I like someone. No one's getting angry at Larxene for sleeping around with everyone when she has a boyfriend already. And Xion and her were the only two girls in a 'study group' full of boys. I bet that was fun." Then Kairi remembered that Xion was Roxas' friend.

"But, I mean Xion is a great gal, I hung out with her a little but she's just one of the guys you know, and Yuffie is just off in her own category. And Aerith- what about Aerith? She sure flies under the radar. I'm sorry, I'm ranting."

Roxas looked over at Axel, who was in shock. He had been hit hard by the part about Larxene sleeping around with everyone except her boyfriend. He saw all the emotions on Axel's face, and the last one was anger. Then Axel looked at Roxas, grinning maliciously. Kairi was still going on.

"But I'm not like Selphie; she just goes at any one hoping that they'll be prince charming. I'm romantic too; I just don't show it on the outside. I'm just like everyone else; I'm just trying to find the right someone." She finished and Axel suddenly sniggered across the line. Roxas looked over at him in horror.

"Is someone else on the line?" Kairi snapped, and Roxas whimpered as Axel broke out laughing on the other end of the line. There was dead silence on Kairi's end, and then she cleared her throat.

"Well, I see this was all just a sick joke. Thanks for getting my hopes up, Roxas. I actually thought that you were a nice guy. Is this some kind of dare or something?" Kairi said calmly across the line and Roxas got flustered again.

"Sorry, Kairi. I dared Roxas to call you and tell you that you were sexy. We didn't know all of this would happen." Axel piped up for Roxas. Roxas kept the phone to his ear, and he thought that he could sense Kairi fuming on the other end of the line. Then, without warning, she hung up.

Axel sat back for a moment, not realizing the magnitude of what he'd just done. He smiled wryly, and went over to Roxas, who slowly hung up the phone, and put his head into his hands. Axel let out a deep breath, still smiling.

"Well, buddy boy. Dare's over. You can go home now if you want." Axel barked, trying to be bright. Roxas could tell that it was forced. He knew that he'd let Roxas down, and it was obvious that he was ashamed. Roxas decided not to let him off.

"You turned really girly after you started hanging out with Larxene and Marluxia and Zexion. But I didn't know that they turned you into a bitch too." He snarled, eyeing Axel.

Axel shrugged. "Maybe I am one. And maybe I don't particularly care. You know what? I'm sorry, okay?" He snapped, folding his arms over his chest. "I didn't know that she'd break out confessing. And I'm sorry I laughed across the line. I realize that that didn't really help the situation."

Roxas scratched his head. "Okay, I forgive you." Roxas sighed, and Axel grabbed him by the arm and led him over to the TV. "Let's watch a movie." Axel offered, and Roxas smiled. "Okay." He said with a forced smile, and they both sat down.

They laughed through the first movie, and then they decided to watch a second one, and a third one, too. Roxas was careful to stay awake, but the day had taken its toll on Axel, and he conked out, drooling as his eyebrow twitched in his sleep. Roxas looked over at him slyly, examining him to see if he really was asleep, after all.

Then, he sneaked off down the road, hoping that Axel wouldn't wake up for a while. When he got to the end of Axel's street, he walked up the pathway that led to Xaldin's house. They just happened to live nearby, but they weren't particularly fond of each other. Xaldin opened the door, snorting.

"Well if it isn't little Roxas. You angry? You look like it." He said, munching on some chips. He'd stick a chip between his lips just so, and then he would push it into his mouth slowly, and break it apart with his teeth like a high speed paper shredder. Roxas watched in wonder as he worked his way through five chips that way. When Xaldin was on the sixth chip, he noticed that Roxas was staring at his mouth. Xaldin looked from his chip back to Roxas with a worried look. Then he offered it to Roxas, holding the bag out to him. Roxas shook his head, waving his hand in front of him. He didn't feel like eating anything when it was this late.

"You wanna come inside?" Xaldin said unsurely, looking back around his flat. Roxas nodded, and walked inside, with Xaldin behind him, still working through the bag of chips.

"I need your hair care kit- the one with all the hair razors and stuff." Roxas declared, looking around the room for it. It was still wrapped up like a present. Zexion had given it to Xaldin for his birthday and he'd never used it. Xaldin chuckled.

"Just keep it. I have dreads- so I don't need it. All I'd use it for is to style the 'stache, and I already have something for that."

Roxas nodded as Xaldin droned on about his hair, picking up the box. Then, he went towards the door as Xaldin continued to talk.

"Goodnight." Roxas mumbled, cutting Xaldin short. Then, he walked out the door and back towards Axel's house. Xaldin sauntered out after him, waving to him as he walked down the sidewalk.

"Hey, come by sometime." Xaldin called after Roxas, and the boy nodded, waving back. He watched as Xaldin turned and went back into his house. Then, Roxas came to Axel's apartment, and walked back inside, careful to tip toe. Axel was still sound asleep.

Roxas lugged Axel towards the bathroom, and got a pair of scissors out of the drawer in the kitchen. He sat Axel on the toilet, and then, he rubbed his hands together, preparing himself.

Without thinking excessively, Roxas began to hack off pieces of Axel's hair, with Axel mumbling incoherently in his sleep behind him. When Roxas had cut Axel's hair enough, he opened Xaldin's razor kit, and read the instructions. Then, when he thought that he knew what he was doing, he put the razor together, and shaved the remaining tufts of hair off Axel's head. Roxas sighed, and stepped back, admiring his handy work.

The sight hit Roxas like a slap in the face. Axel lay slumped over the toilet, virtually bald. His head looked abnormally small without all the hair on it, and he looked _weaker_ for some reason- Like a lion who had had its mane sheared off of it- or a sheared sheep. Then, the immense feeling that he'd done something very wrong fell over Roxas, and he couldn't shake it off. He tried to calm himself, lugging Axel back out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. He took his hoodie and jeans off, and put Axel in bed, patting his head before he left the room. After that, he cleaned the bathroom off, writing a note to Axel that he'd sell the magazines himself tomorrow, and Axel could just stay and relax in bed if he wanted.

Roxas got on the train, and went home, hoping against hope that Axel had wanted to cut his hair anyway.

…

Axel woke up feeling fresh and new. He'd succeeded in hiding his disappointment about Larxene from Roxas the night before, and he was determined to put everything behind him, and go and sell some magazines with Roxas. He sat up, a little bit sad for the boy. His chances with Kairi were shot now.

Then, Axel shivered involuntarily, looking up at the fan above him. It was on the normal speed, but Axel's head didn't feel warm like it usually did. He didn't feel the swish of his hair when he sat up like he usually did.

Suddenly, a great fear fell over Axel, and he jumped out of the bed, running for the bathroom, hoping that this was all a nightmare.

Then, he looked in the mirror, and screamed bloody murder. Then he fainted. After that, he woke up again, looked in the mirror again, and screamed bloody murder again. But he didn't faint.

He didn't feel sorry for Roxas anymore. He didn't even feel sorry for himself. He felt angry, and dangerous. Then, he felt the sudden craving to have sex. That kind of craving hadn't come around for months. He looked into the mirror again, seething.

"Roxas" he snarled. "I'm gonna kill you."


	2. Roadtrip!

**Hello again! Hope you are enjoying the story! This is the chapter where the action really begins! We have a bit of silliness in this one, and a bit of eeriness. I won't do a 'recap' like I did for my last fanfic- you've gotta read it! Thanks again for reading my story! :D **

Roxas added up all the money he'd gotten from selling the magazines in his closet. Together with the $120 he had already, he had around $500. He sighed in anguish. He'd had $2,000 before Axel had drunkenly glued it all to his parent's lamp. Roxas thought about Axel then, and got uncomfortable.

"He deserved it." Roxas mumbled to himself. Then, he took down his stand, threw the junk wood he'd used to make it near a dumpster, and got on his bike. He'd have to call everyone and tell them to meet at the second hand car place. $500 would not buy a usable car.

Twenty minutes later, 10 people were standing among all the second hand cars, looking expectantly at each other. Roxas went into the middle of the circle, and cleared his throat.

"Axel lost the money I was gonna use to buy the car for the road trip guys." He said dejectedly, noticing that Axel wasn't there.

"You told us that over the phone." Kairi said curtly, refusing to look at him. She was still very angry with him.

"I need money from all of you if you want to go" as Roxas said this, there were complaints from everyone in the group, and he started to get angry. Stomping his foot on the ground, he looked at all of them furiously. "Hey, I was the one who spent ages saving up for this trip, and now that I ask for a little bit of cash, you all get angry with me? Who do you think you are? There are at least 10 of us going on this bloody trip to begin with, let's have a little friendly charity, eh?"

Everyone looked around at each other, and Kairi sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. She held out a $100 bill. Everyone stared at her, and she shrugged. "I've been saving up for this trip too." She drawled, stepping back. No one came up, and Roxas wondered if the trip was even going to happen at all. Then, there was a little bit of pushing, and Axel came up from behind the small crowd of friends, and offered up $30. Roxas avoided making eye contact with him, but he still felt Axel's cold stare on him. After that, one by one, everyone began to file up, giving money up for the car. In all, they made $350. Added to Roxas' money, they had $850. He sighed, noticing that Axel was very fidgety. There was something very off about him, today.

"Alright, we're not gonna get a beauty with this scrap of cash, but we'll get something." Then he went off to a man leaning on the side of one of the cars, picking his teeth with a toothpick. As soon as the man saw Roxas coming, he spit it out (not sparing any subtlety) and warmly greeted the boy.

"Welcome!" He barked, spreading his arms out as if he was going to try and hug the whole world. "What brings you to this humble abode?" He grinned widely, and Roxas noticed that his two front teeth were missing. His teeth made a whistling nose when he tried to pronounce his s's, and he was also having trouble pronouncing his t's, and a whole group of other common sounds. Roxas scratched the back of his neck, and looked back up at the man.

"We want a good car for $850." Roxas said slowly, and the man's smile faded. He put on his thinking cap, and then he came back again with an even huger smile. He was working the salesman stance. "Well, there's this nice little number that _I _like to call Bessie, over here. And she's only $150 more!" With that he whistled up a storm, and Roxas wiped the spit off the side of his face, trying to force a smile. The crowd of kids stood expectantly behind him.

"We don't have that much. We only have $850." Roxas stated, and the man's smile faded again- this time for good.

"Well, let me see what I can rile up." The man mumbled, kicking a pebble out from under his feet and stalking off to talk to another employee. Roxas waited uncomfortably for the man to come back, and when he did, the man that _he _had been talking to was driving an old banger, which looked close to death. Roxas gaped, but soon shut his mouth tight with all the exhaust spewing from the back of the vehicle. His friends coughed behind him, and Axel just stood with his hands in his pockets, looking off into the distance.

Roxas thought for a moment, and then got into the car, taking over the wheel from the man who had driven the car over to them.

"Nice car, ain't she?" The man without the teeth said uncaringly, picking his teeth again. Roxas shrugged, and tried to park the car, but the breaks wouldn't work. "Oh shit!" He said to himself, as the car began to veer closer to a group of vehicles awaiting a buy. He looked out helplessly at his friends, who stood dumbfounded beside the slow-moving car. "Well, do something!" Roxas shrieked, and all his friends and the two employees lolloped towards the front of the car, and stopped it in its tracks before it could reach any of the other second hand cars.

Roxas got out of the car, and slammed the door behind him, shaking his head.

The two employees scratched their heads, and went to bring out another car. Axel was making a call.

20 minutes later, the two men came back with a considerably better looking car, that seemed to run alright, but Roxas was still suspicious. It made a gurgling nose when he turned it on, and when it stopped, the whole car shuddered a little bit. It was discomforting. As Roxas got out of the car, trying to figure out a reason not to buy it, the employees began to grin, sensing a possible sale on the horizon. They tried to butter Roxas up, telling him how they'd drive this car over the ocean, and trite like that. Roxas was about to say 'okay' to the car, when a hand fell on his shoulder. It was Xaldin.

"Hey little man!" Xaldin boomed, and strode towards the car. Zexion, Marluxia, and an uncomfortable Larxene kept their distance from the rest of the party as Xaldin began to inspect the car. Then, Zexion went over to stand beside Roxas.

"He's into cars." Zexion commented airily as Xaldin closed the hood, and talked with the employees.

There seemed to be a bit of an argument going on, and finally, the two salesmen nodded, and brought the car back into the shop. Xaldin turned, wiping his hands off on his trousers. He was wearing a plain baseball style shirt, with the red sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and grinned brightly as he sauntered over to the rest of the party. His dreads were tied back away from his face, and he'd restyled his usual scruffy beard into a shorter, cleaner shaven style. The whole look went well with his tan skin. Out of the corner of his eye, Roxas noticed a few of the girls checking him out. He looked better in casual clothes then he had in the uniforms at the private school he and Roxas had gone to. Roxas felt his face suddenly, trying to picture himself with a wide goatee. He cringed, and tried to wave the image out of his head. He couldn't rock the 'manly scruffy' look like Xaldin could.

The man came back to the party, still smiling, and pointed to the car. "It'll be ready by tomorrow." Xaldin said proudly, and the whole party moaned in anguish. Xaldin looked confused.

"Is that bad?" Xaldin said flatly, getting a little bit defensive.

Roxas shook his head, sighing. "We were supposed to be out by today. We were gonna go right now." Roxas said sadly, and Xaldin scratched his scruffy chin, nodding to himself. "I can do that." He whispered.

Then, he went back and talked to the men again, and Roxas saw them nod weakly, and Xaldin sauntered back.

"They said that I could help them work on it, get it up to par. If I work hard at it, we could all be out in a couple of hours." Xaldin said brightly, and Roxas furrowed his eyebrows together.

"Wait, what?" he barked, and Zexion looked at him coolly.

"Axel called us all and asked us if we wanted to come. We can come, right?" he added curtly at the end.

Roxas shook his head defiantly. "That's gonna be fifteen people. We need at least two cars for that."

Larxene unfolded her arms, and pulled Xaldin back towards the store. The two employees were barely able to stand after Larxene's telling off, and Xaldin decided to keep his distance from her. As she walked back towards the crowd, she patted down her hair, and smiled smugly.

"We'll be out in a little while." She chirped, and she and Xaldin went back to the store to help with the cars. It was two hours before the whole party actually saw the handy work, and when the two cars came out, they saw why Larxene had been deployed.

Two decent looking vans rolled out of the back of the shop, with Larxene and Xaldin at the wheel. They were worth much more than $850. Larxene hopped out of one of them, smiling.

"Well, we got these for $2000 in all. Thank us later for the spare change. The four of us have been saving up for a trip like this. And I am gonna get my money's worth." She added, looking meanly back at the two weather beaten employees a few yards behind them.

Xaldin nodded. "I worked on them a bit, so they'll work fine. Now we gotta sort out who's going with whom."

The girls looked at each other, smiling. "How about all the girls go in one van and the boys can go in the other one?" Namine chirped, and Selphie snorted.

"Get some adventure in you, woulda?" Selphie shouted, ripping open the door of one of the vans. But the rest of the ladies were already agreeing.

"We can have a boys van and a girls van."

Then Roxas piped up. "Wait, there are only six girls, and there are nine boys. We have to even it out, which means at least one boy would be in the girls van."

All the guys stared at each other, and then they all raised their hands at the same time, except for Zexion, who didn't seem to care.

Kairi looked around at all of the hopefuls, and then pointed to Zexion, who sighed.

"He probably won't even listen to anything that's going on anyway." Kairi shrugged, dragging Zexion along behind her. Then, everyone piled into the vans.

Larxene was driving the girl's van, and Xaldin said that he'd drive the boys van.

The two stopped just before the road to discuss directions, and then the two vans were off, and out onto the road. They both sang songs at first, and honked at each other, making faces out the window and posing for camera's in the opposite van, but after about two hours, the fun of the horseplay wore off (and the fact that Larxene said the next girl she heard shouting would be thrown out of the van) and everyone became quiet.

In the girls van, Selphie had already broke out the nail polish. Zexion sighed in relief at the final quiet, and dozed off. Then, when Selphie was sure he was asleep, she smiled slyly at the other girls.

"He thinks he's gonna get off easy because he's in the girls van." She giggled, and took his shoes off. "Kairi, you get his left hand, I'll do his right, and you girls in the middle can do his toes." Namine and Olette nodded as Selphie addressed them from the back, and they hoisted Zexion's feet into their laps, and started to paint his nails. He hardly stirred at all.

"So" Selphie piped up, looking around the car. "What do you think of this one?" The rest of the girls shrugged, and Larxene smiled. "I think he's great- because I have been with him for a little while." After Larxene said this, there was dead silence, and Selphie felt thankful that she was sitting in the back of the car. Then, Xion cleared her throat.

"Xaldin's not doing so bad, either, am I right?" she commented slyly, grinning at the rest of the girls, who nodded.

"He's the manliest out of all of the boys, I think. He's so scruffy and different. I never noticed it until now…" Namine blubbered, sighing and blushing at the end of her sentence. Selphie looked at Namine, grinning mischievously.

"Let's play truth or dare." Selphie blurted out, and the rest of the car rolled their eyes, voicing their discontent with the game. Olette shrugged. "Go on." She said, and the game began.

"Okay." Selphie said, hoisting her pants up. "Namine, truth or dare?"

Namine thought for a moment, but turned to face the front of the car when she heard Larxene sniggering.

"You all know she's gonna pick truth, and because she's the innocent little princess, you're gonna ask her stuff like 'did you ever like a boy' or something stupid like that. Here's what we all did when we played truth or dare." Larxene kept her eyes on the road, but put her right hand up in the air to get everyone's attention.

"We have what we like to call, easy truths, and easy dares. That's what you start out with. As the game goes on, the truths and dares get tougher and tougher and you have to answer them- or else, you have to go through torture at my hands." Larxene snarled, cackling at the end. Selphie clapped her hands together excitedly. "Well, what are we waiting for?" She squealed, and then she pointed to Kairi, who nodded.

"Kairi, truth or dare?" Selphie sang, and Kairi smiled in between painting Zexion's nails.

"Truth" Kairi replied, and Selphie looked a little bit disappointed, but she decided to work with it anyway.

"Have you kissed more than five boys?" Selphie asked, and Kairi snorted.

"Nope, I only kissed one. And that was Sora."

The whole car sighed in disappointment, and Kairi looked around for the next victim. She decided to try Olette.

"Truth or dare, Olette" she said, and Olette smiled.

"Truth" she said decidedly, and it was obvious that the whole car was already bored. Kairi thought for a moment, smiling.

"Have you ever liked Hayner?" Kairi decided, and the car awaited Olette's answer. She shrugged, blushing a little bit.

"Well, of course I do. We wouldn't be going out if we didn't!" Olette responded, and the whole car squealed in excitement. This woke Zexion up, and he stared down in horror at his painted nails. Then, he shrugged uncaringly. Olette decided to question him next.

"Zexion, truth or dare" she said bravely, sensing Larxene grip the wheel tighter. Zexion sighed.

"Truth."

"Which girl- not counting Larxene- is the prettiest out of this whole car?"

Zexion thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "You are, I suppose." He drawled to Olette, and there was more squealing. Olette blushed, and Selphie was visibly excited.

"Well, you know what they say- forbidden fruit is the sweetest- eh, Olette?" she chirped, and Olette blushed madly, looking out the window. "Your turn, Zexion" she said shyly, and the young man looked around the car for a girl who hadn't been chosen.

"Xion, truth or dare?"

Xion smiled dangerously, and looked back at everyone.

"Dare!" She barked, and Zexion tried to think of something.

"Tell Xaldin you like his arms."

Xion blushed madly at this, and Zexion grinned for a moment. Then he switched back to his nonchalant gaze. He knew that the girls had all been taken with the man.

Xion shrugged. "What the hell." She muttered to herself, and Larxene voluntarily pulled up beside the other van so that Xion was beside Xaldin.

"Hey." She called over to him, and Xaldin looked around at her.

"Do you all need more directions from here?" Xaldin questioned, and Xion shook her head, trying not to blush again.

"I just wanted to tell you that I like your arms." Xion said quickly, but Larxene wouldn't let her close her window. She was waiting to see what Xaldin would say. He shrugged, a little bit taken aback, then smiled at Xion.

"Uh, thanks I guess." He said gruffly, and then turned back to the wheel. The whole girl van was laughing like crazy, and Xion shouted for them all to shut up. She looked around the car, and decided to pick Namine next, who squirmed a little bit. She had passed under the radar before, but the stakes were getting higher now. She said truth.

"Have you ever had dirty thoughts about someone? If so, who?" Xion barked, and Namine sighed, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, yeah." Namine said politely, and car almost stopped.

"You have?" Xion asked, and Namine nodded, getting out her notebook.

"Sure, I have lots of ideas. They're all in here." She said, opening up her notebook and letting the rest of the car look at it. Everyone was blushing by the end.

"Damn girl, you really can draw." Olette sighed in awe.

"Who knew, of all people…?" Selphie examined the page closer, and fanned herself with her hand.

By this time, it was getting dark outside, and as they got further out past the main road, Larxene began to get more nervous.

"I don't recognize any of this stretch." Xion commented, and Larxene snapped at her.

"If you keep talking, I'll get lost. Everyone just shut up and let me drive." She barked. After a while, the road veered off, away from the lights of the city nearby, and turned into a lonesome country road.

Larxene signaled for the boys van to pull over, and Xaldin got out of the car to talk with her.

"I don't recognize any of this. We're off in the middle of nowhere, now." Larxene growled, and Xaldin scratched his head. "Well, I'm just driving; Marluxia's the one reading the map. I told him to take the road onto the red side of the map."

Marluxia got out of the car too, and stood uncomfortably beside the two.

"Show me where you took us, Marluxia." Xaldin growled, growing angry again. Marluxia breathed out deeply, getting annoyed.

"I took us to the red side of the map, like you told me to. See, I had us take the road over here."

"Marluxia, can I tell you something?"

"What do you want to tell me?"

"That side of the map is purple."

"Don't eff with me, it's red and I know it."

"It's purple."

There was silence, and Marluxia squinted at the map angrily. Zexion chuckled from the girls van. "Who knew that Marluxia was colorblind?"

"It would explain the hair." Hayner commented thoughtfully, and Marluxia backed away from the party, looking from side to side as if trying to find an escape route.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. But hey, what's the point of a road trip when we're just going to the same places over and over again. Let's try this road- let's see where it leads. Let's find some adventure!"

The whole party became pepped up by Marluxia's little speech, and they all started off down the country road once more.

In the boys van, things were pretty quiet. Marluxia was made sit on the floor of the van for his mess up, and Axel sat stock straight in the back, with Roxas and Riku on either side of him. He was brooding.

Hours went by, and they still couldn't make out where they were going. Xaldin commented that this place wasn't on the map at all, and Marluxia asked him 'where the adventure was in his old bones.'

Axel had his hood pulled way over his face, and he looked up out from under the hood with sudden desperation.

"What's the matter, Axel?" Riku asked, and Axel looked at him strangely. Axel looked out the window of the car.

"I wish I was in the girls van." He whined, and the whole van stated their approval.

"Everyone does." Riku chuckled, and noticed that Axel was looking desperately at him.

"I have not had proper sex in a year." Axel said hoarsely, and there were sniggers throughout the van.

Riku shrugged with embarrassment. "Well, you're not the only one. Get over it."

Axel shook his head fiercely, and suddenly, he ripped the hood off of his head, exposing his shaven head. The whole car gasped, and a few people screamed.

"You're almost f**king bald, man! What happened? I was wondering why you were acting like a neutered dog the whole car trip- you had your mane taken from you!" Xaldin said, knowing the pain of losing a signature do. He petted his dreadlocks affectionately, and Marluxia fluffed up his own hair. Sora, Riku, and Hayner understood too. But Roxas just snorted.

"Oh come on guys, you can't seriously be _that _into your hair!" Roxas said meanly. He was in the caged weasel mode again. Riku looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Your hair looks really styled, though Roxas. In a way, it looks like it takes more work than anyone's in this car." Riku exclaimed, and the rest of the car nodded. Roxas shook his head.

"I just sleep on my side when my hair's wet, and it's dried into this shape when I wake up. I just kind of fluff it up at the side so it doesn't look horrible. That's all, really." Roxas said, and the rest of the car looked at him thoughtfully.

"Wow, I always thought you were the most superficial guy around- besides Marluxia and Zexion." Sora piped up, and everyone nodded, grunting 'yeah.' Roxas glared at them all.

"I am not superficial!" He snapped, and turned to look out the window. Pence looked at him closely, and then gasped.

"Wait, Roxas. Are _you _the one that did that to Axel?" Pence barked, and the whole car snapped their attention on Roxas.

Roxas just shrugged, and the whole car started to shake their heads in anger- there were even a few growls. No one was impressed. They fell silent as Axel cleared his throat to continue, looking on in awe like he was a war hero. They all had new respect for Axel, and for what he'd gone through. He addressed the crowd.

"Ever since college, I lost my sexual prowess. I just felt kind of dead down there." He said dramatically and there were a few nods.

"Then, Larxene only made it worse. I lost all my confidence." Sora wiped away a tear from his eye as Axel said this, shaking his head as if in fervent prayer.

"But, ever since I lost my mane- something has changed." Axel began to raise his voice. "I don't have the package anymore- before I didn't _need _to have good sex, because I already knew I had the package. The look. The sensuality to pull the lovers in. But I couldn't hold onto them, because I lost interest."

There was a rousing applause from the audience in the car, and Roxas rolled his eyes.

"But now, I don't _have _the package- the thing that makes Axel sexy! So suddenly, I _need _to have good sex- I need some satisfaction!" Axel roared, and the whole boys van erupted in applause, except Roxas, who was just snickering.

"And if I don't get it in under five seconds there is a 98% chance that I will attack someone." Axel added flatly, and the whole car got quiet. They weren't expecting that.

Xaldin shook his head sadly, ignoring Axel's last comment. "Man, you shouldn't hold off for that long."

Axel looked at him strangely. "The mood didn't come for a year, and now I feel like I'm drowning in it. I'll die or go mad if I don't do something soon. And you will all be sorry if you don't listen." Axel growled darkly, and the car got very quiet again. Riku was slowly unbuckling his seatbelt and inching towards the middle of the car, when Axel suddenly grabbed him.

Roxas was shoved into the window, and his sore back jabbed against one of the glove compartments in the back of the van. He cried out in pain, and Riku began to squeal as Axel ripped his shirt off, and started to kiss his chest. The whole car went into chaos, as Riku began to struggle, with Axel keeping a tight grip on his pants.

Xaldin tried veering from side to side, and Axel fell into Roxas, pushing his back further into the side of the car. If this kept up, Roxas would get stuck down the side of the seat.

Marluxia suddenly punched his fists into the air, hollering like crazy, and jumped into the back with Axel and Riku. Sora was crying again, and Pence screamed as Marluxia grabbed his leg. Hayner grabbed Pence's arm, and tried to pull him back into the middle. Riku wasn't shouting anymore, and sounds of kissing could be heard in the back.

"Pence!" Hayner screeched, as he lost the grip on Pence's arm, and Sora catapulted himself into Hayner's lap, trying to hide under the glove compartment in the passenger seat. Hayner dodged Marluxia as he tried to get him in the back, too, and opted to hide down beside Sora. They started hugging each other and crying, and Xaldin tried not to let his temper get the better of him. The girls van pulled up beside him as he continued to drive, and they got close enough so that Xion could poke her head in.

"What's going on in here, the van's bumping back and forth like a bag full of popcorn!" Xion giggled, and then she peeped in the back. Marluxia tried to make a grab for her, and she dodged, falling back onto Larxene, screaming. Selphie maneuvered her way into the front, and peeped into the back of the boys van too.

"Let me in this van!" She shouted, but Xion held her back.

"Hell to the no!" Xion snarled at her, and succeeded in shoving her into the back of the car.

All the girls started to scream as they noticed what was going on in the boys van, and Namine started to draw in her notebook.

Xaldin had been holding up pretty well up until this point, but the party in the back had all moved to the middle, and like a monster, they started to grab Sora by the arm. Sora screamed, and Hayner tried to pull him back by the other arm, but in one swift movement, they were both in the back with everyone else.

Xaldin felt someone trying to kiss his dreadlocks, and that's when he finally snapped. Suddenly, he roared, and the car went screeching over to the side of the dirt road, and into some bushes. Then, he ripped open the middle door of the car, and started throwing people out. Some were thrown out two at a time, or in extreme cases three at a time, but Xaldin got them all out of the car.

He looked down at them all like a bull getting ready to charge.

They were all sweaty, and had at least one article of clothing taken off of them. Axel was still brooding looking, and he wiped some spit off the side of his mouth, and sniffed.

"What the hell do you think you all are doing in my van?" Xaldin boomed, and Larxene and the girls pulled up beside them all. Larxene got out of the car, and stood beside Xaldin, looking ready to kill.

"I fixed this up with my bare hands- and you all go and try to defile it?" Xaldin roared, but Sora was still in the moment.

"Did you like it when I kissed your dreads?" Sora asked, arching his eyebrows and grinning mischievously.

Xaldin's expression was unreadable. "You were the one who touched my dreads?"

Sora nodded proudly, and before he knew it, Xaldin had punched him in the face, and proceeded to beat him up.

"No one ever touches my dreads unless I say so!" Xaldin roared, and it took Larxene, and the rest of the boys van to pull him off Sora, who was crying again.

Xaldin stalked off, and started to punch a tree, then, when he'd regained his composure, he came back, a little bit ashamed of his behavior. Larxene looked around coolly, and then sighed in disgust.

Xion got out of the car too, and folded her arms over her chest. "Whoever decided to try and pull me in the back of the boys van; that is _no _way to treat a lady!" she snarled, and Marluxia shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

Xion noticed that Riku was snickering, and she went over and slapped him in the face. He reeled back in surprise, and the boys began to listen to her.

"You should all be ashamed in yourselves for letting feelings like that over take you! Sure- girls feel like that too- but we" she looked at Selphie as she said this "well, most of us don't let those feelings overtake us. You all think that just because you're boys, you can do whatever you want, and girls have to hold back until you need them- but let me tell you this! Maybe you should try restraining yourselves once in a while, too! Maybe you all wouldn't be single if you did that."

Olette got out of the girls van too, and looked at Hayner in anger.

"Sorry." Hayner said with shame. "I was in the moment."

Olette looked away. "I didn't know that saving yourself for me and me only excluded boys."

Hayner looked from side to side frantically, and finally pointed to Axel.

"It was _his _fault;_ he_ said that he really needed to have sex! He said he was drowning in the mood, and then as everyone started to go in the back, they all started to turn into animals! It was like he casted a spell over all of us!"

Everyone turned to look at Riku, who was only in his boxers. He blushed, and backed towards the van.

"What, I was the first to go!" Riku said defensively, and the rest of the party rolled their eyes.

Larxene looked around, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Wait, where are Axel and Marluxia?" She questioned. Then, her facial expression changed, and it seemed as if she knew the answer already.

"I suppose that Roxas is with them, too?" Kairi added from inside the girls van, preparing to be disgusted with him, too. Then they heard a wail from the back of the boys van, and a hand banged the inside of the window, and slid down out of sight.

Kairi rushed towards the boys van, and looked in the back. "Roxas is stuck between the wall and the seat in the back of the car!" She shouted, and a few people came over and tried to help her get him out. When he did get out of the back of the car, he tried to cover his face to hide the tears from everyone. His back was aching really badly, now.

Xaldin looked at the sky. "It's getting late." He said, sighing. "Maybe we should rest here."

The rest of the party agreed, and they both went into their own respective vans.

Roxas hobbled over to his van, just as Axel and Marluxia came back from some bushes behind the car. Marluxia's hair was a mess, and it had some dirt and leaves in it, but he was smiling blissfully. Axel didn't look satisfied at all.

"Best ever" Marluxia sighed, and flitted over to the van, pushing Roxas out of the way.

Riku went over to Axel, careful to keep his distance. Axel looked at him with melancholy, and Riku shuffled from side to side.

"Well, did you get rid of the mood?" Riku asked, and Axel shook his head.

"It's not as bad as before- but it's still there. I guess that Marluxia wasn't the one that I _needed." _Axel said mystically, and looked Riku up and down, then walked away.

Xion went over and snuck up on Roxas, who was trying to stretch his aching back. She tiptoed behind him- and elbowed him in his sore spot, and he shrieked in pain. The whole party snapped their attention to him as he fell over, and started to cry. The rest of the guys and Kairi weren't feeling very compassionate towards him, because they were all mad at him.

Roxas tried to get up without anyone seeing his tears, and hobbled over towards the bushes. Xion went after him, as he continued to hobble. They reached a stretch of woods, and Xion gasped. Roxas sniffed, and looked around.

"I know where Marluxia and Axel got down." Xion commented flatly, pointed to a bush that had been mangled and flattened down. There was also a pair of underwear hanging off the side of a tree stump near it.

Roxas shook his head, continuing to hobble, but Xion stopped him gently, and sat him down.

"What's wrong with everyone? No one seems to like you. You know, I find it weird that you were the only one in the car that was fully clothed. Do none of the boys like you, at all?"

Roxas shook his head, laying it down on Xion's chest. She patted his shoulder, sighing.

"Axel made a bet with me that I couldn't watch a dirty video for more than five minutes. I lost, so I had to call Kairi and tell her that she was sexy. It turned out that she liked me, too, and in the middle of the call, she was talking about how Larxene was cheating on Axel. It must've made him angry, so he laughed across the phone and told her about the dare. So she's mad at me. And I was so mad at Axel, that I cut all of his hair off. He told all the guys, and then it turns out that I'm the only one that doesn't style my hair in the morning or whatever."

Xion looked at him in surprise. "You don't?"

"No."

"Wow, I always thought that you were the most superficial guy out of the lot."

Roxas ignored this, and continued on with his story. "Well, anyway, then they all loved Axel and hated me for taking away his manliness, and then Axel went crazy and started an orgy in the back of the car. I wasn't included, and I got stuck down the back of the car. It killed my back."

Xion put her palm to her temple. "What's wrong with your back?"

Roxas sighed, and took his shirt off, bending over so that she could see his back. She gasped, and touched the huge multicolored bruise that seemed to be spreading across his back.

"What did you do to yourself?" Xion cried out, and Roxas shrugged.

"The night of my party, I fell asleep, and then I must have fallen out of bed and knocked over my desk chair. I don't really know how it got in front of my bed, but my back jabbed into one of the corners of the star on the back of the desk chair."

Xion thought for a moment, sighing uncomfortably.

"Roxas, can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, Xion, you can tell me whatever you want!"

"I walked in on Riku and Selphie in your room the night of your party. I don't know what they'd been using the chair for, but it was turned over beside the bed."

"And where were they?"

"On the bed."

"Doing what?"

Xion scratched the back of her head, chuckling with discomfort. "Let's just say that you don't really want to know." She said lightly, and Roxas moaned in anguish.

"I slept on that bed that night! My mother and I were sitting on it the next day! How could they do that? Who do they think they are? That's disgusting!" Roxas continued off on a tirade of things describing Riku and Selphie, until Xion got him to calm down.

"Just don't worry about it, Roxas. It's done now; you can't do anything about it."

Roxas nodded reluctantly. "I guess you're right. So far my birthday has gone terribly. I wish I knew what I could do to get my back in better shape, though."

Xion thought for a moment, examining the bruise again.

"We've got to get you to a doctor first thing tomorrow morning. Maybe we shouldn't have listened to Marluxia when he said to take the country road. Why didn't you tell us about your back sooner?"

"Because I didn't want anyone to worry about me. I thought it might jeopardize our trip!"

Xion sighed again. "Roxas, don't ever do that again. You might have really hurt yourself. Your back is an important part of your body- you can't ignore it!"

Roxas pursed his lips together, and nodded. Then, they both sat quiet for a moment, looking up at the stars that were beginning to dot the night sky above them.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Xion whispered, and Roxas nodded.

"Axel was acting really weird today, wasn't he? Do you think that he was being overly dramatic about everything?" Xion piped up, and Roxas shrugged.

"Axel is an interesting person. I don't think he was being overly dramatic, though. He wouldn't have been so serious if he was."

Xion nodded, and then looked back up at the sky. Roxas chuckled.

"I think he just needs some special attention. Maybe he wants someone to come onto _him_ once in a while. In a weird way, he has to fight for attention by being loud and obnoxious. And when he gets bored, he meddles. I think people underestimate his intelligence."

Xion nodded at this. "Yeah, you're right. Maybe he feels like he's kind of lost his identity, so he needs someone to make him feel special again. In a way, though, it's a good change for him. He won't be thinking that his hair is the only thing that makes him worthwhile. He just needs a lady to tell him that he's beautiful just the way he is."

Roxas nodded, and noticed how the moon shone off Xion's black hair. In the moonlight, he could even see a little bit of deep blue in it. And he could see all the different shades of brilliant blue in her eyes with the moonlight shining off her face; it looked like her skin glowed a little bit.

"You okay, Roxas?" She said, noticing him staring at her. He snapped back to attention, nodding briskly, and Xion laughed.

"The moonlight casts a spell on everything, and makes it beautiful or frightening, or both if it chooses to."

Roxas chuckled. "Where'd you hear that one?"

"I just made it up myself." Xion chirped, blushing a little bit, and they both laughed again. Then there was silence, until Xion coughed a little bit, looking expectantly at Roxas.

"Yep" she said softly, continuing to look at Roxas, who couldn't figure out what she wanted.

"Something up?" Roxas asked, and Xion frowned at him, standing back up, and huffing loudly.

"No" she snapped, and stalked off back to the van. Roxas sighed to himself. He just couldn't get anyone to like him for too long.

He started to get up, and as he did, he heard the snap of a twig behind him. Slowly, he turned around to see if anyone was behind him, but there was no one. All that stood behind him was the forest that dotted the landscape ahead of him. Its subtle omnipotence scared him, and he began to back away from it, feeling its dark gaze upon him. Anything could be hiding inside of it, waiting. Roxas couldn't shake the feeling that the forest was _alive, _and the wind swishing the leaves was its breath, slowly wafting past him.

He shivered, and then began to run towards the vans. When he got back, everyone had already started a fire, and they were all telling ghost stories. Sora was blubbering, as usual. Larxene had just gone, and had described in detail the process that a mad hitchhiker had gone through to disembowel his victims.

"And then he made them all into sausages, and served them at a roadside inn that he ran during the summertime. If you go into the innermost room in the inn, where he sleeps, you can still see rows of jars- containing the heads of his cutest victims!" She screeched, and Sora couldn't take it anymore. He ran and hid inside the girls van, where Zexion had fallen asleep.

"Alright, who's next?" Marluxia drawled nonchalantly, eyeing all of the shaking people sitting around the fire. Pence was the only one who was still smiling, and he raised his hand.

"Okay, Pence. Fire one up."

Pence nodded, and cleared his throat.

"Once upon a time, there was a young boy, who got lost on a trip, much like the one that we're on right now."

Terrified moans could be heard from the girls van, and Sora was peeping out the window with a half curious, half frightened glance.

"He decided to go explore the woods that the car had stopped by, and soon, he was lost in their depths. All he could hear was a ticking sound…" Pence said eerily, and the wind seemed to work with him, blowing through the small campsite, and making the fire go down a little bit.

"As he went on, the ticking got louder and louder, and then finally, it stopped as he came to a small pool of water in the middle of the forest."

Riku was wringing his shirt in his hands, and the rest of the party was wide eyed.

"In the middle of the pool, stood another boy, whose skin was white and boney, and blue with the cold. He was holding an old stop watch. His eyes had been closed, but when he heard the boy approaching, he looked up, and the young boy saw that his eyes were bloody and white, dead corneas that stared into the boy's bright blue eyes. And then he smiled."

Pence got up, and started walking in a zombie like trance towards Riku, who was getting really nervous.

"Your eyes" Pence stated in an eerie voice, inching over to Riku. "I need new eyes." Then he made an odd moaning noise, and grabbed either side of Riku's face.

Then, Pence moved his hands towards Riku's eyes, and Riku shut them tightly, shaking like crazy. The rest of the party began to scream, but they couldn't move. Then Pence pretended to stick his fingers into Riku's eyes, and Riku let out a blood curdling screech. Then, they both slumped over onto each other, fidgeting a little bit. No one else knew quite what was going on, so Kairi shrugged and went over to nudge the two boys on the shoulders.

Then, suddenly, Pence and Riku stood up, grabbing Kairi and screeching at the top of their lungs. Kairi started to cry, and screamed with horror when she saw that Riku's eyes were a dead white, and Pence had Riku's blueish aqua tinged eyes.

Kairi began to struggle, but before she could get out of the two boys hold, they both broke down with laughter. Riku and Pence began to roll around on the ground, tears rolling down their cheeks, and Kairi wiped her own frightened tears out of her eyes, getting very angry.

"You guys are little, stupid shits!" She shouted, and went off to the girls van, still shaking like a leaf.

Sora was confused. "Wait, why are you guys eyes like that, then?"

Riku laughed again, removing the contact from his eye, and showing it to Sora. Pence took out his colored contacts, wiping his eye again. "We've been planning this out for months!" Pence said, and him and Riku hooked shoulders. Riku nodded. "Yeah, we rehearsed everything!"

Marluxia snorted. "You guys are such geeks." His hands were still shaking a bit, though.

Xaldin looked darkly at both of them, still wide eyed. "If you had've come at me, it would've been a different story."

Everyone began to laugh, and even Xaldin began to chuckle a little bit. Pence pointed to Larxene.

"Your story was pretty good, too- really gory and detailed. How did you come up with all that in a split second?"

Larxene shrugged, snorting. "Trust me; there wasn't anything in there that I haven't thought of doing to all of you. Except for the heads in the jars part- I saw that in a movie."

The rest of the party went quiet for a moment, inching away from Larxene a little bit, who was examining her fingernails.

The stories must have improved Axel's spirits, because he was smiling.

"Well!" he said brightly "let's get some rest so we can be up in the morning."

Xion went over to Axel as everyone started to yawn and go into either one of the vans. "I need to get Roxas to a doctor- he hurt his back and I want to get him diagnosed incase it's something serious. Can we take one of the vans?"

A few people heard this, and they all groaned. "He's probably just making it up. Too superficial to stand a night in the wilderness" Riku sighed, shaking his head.

Xion pursed her lips. Then, she wheeled Roxas around and pulled his shirt up so everyone could see the bruise on his back.

"Dang, Roxas! You didn't tell us that you'd almost got yourself killed!" Hayner blurted out, and Pence looked concerned.

"Spinal injuries can be dangerous; and potentially fatal." He said in a matter of fact tone. Everyone behind him nodded, agreeing.

"Can I take him to the doctor, then?" Xion snapped at everyone, and Axel nodded. "I'll drive." He mumbled, and hopped into the boys van.

"Uh, we can go in the girls van instead." Xion declared, redirecting Axel to the driver's seat in the girls van.

Roxas got in the middle seat with Xion, and Kairi suddenly hopped in the passenger seat. She blushed, and shrugged her shoulders. "I'll just come, too. It's boring staying here."

And with that, they were all off, back away from the country road and out onto the highway again. Kairi was trying to direct Axel the way off of the country road, and it turned out that she had a pretty good memory.

Xion smiled at her. "I would _not _have been able to remember the way outta here. All the roads and landscape look the same to me!"

Kairi shrugged. "I get nervous going places like this that I don't know, so I make a mental map for myself. I get really edgy when I forget stuff- I hate it. Oh, we're back on the map now!"

Kairi said, pointing to a familiar road sign.

As they finally made their way back onto the highway, everyone breathed out a sigh of relief. Then, they all looked around nervously at one another, and began to laugh. They went past a small town, and Axel bit his lip in frustration, shaking his head.

"It's gonna take ages before we get to the next big city. You guys might want to go to sleep." Axel sighed, looking straight ahead. Kairi raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, we don't need to go to the next 'big city', do we? A country doctor would be just fine!"

"Well, if there is something seriously wrong with Roxas, I just want to get him to the best place possible."

"We should concentrate on speed. It only takes three hours before a person with a spi-"

Roxas waved his hand in the air, and everyone except Axel looked at him. "Guys, I can hear everything you're saying. You're gonna get me into a panic if you keep talking like this. Just chill out."

Then, Roxas looked out the window. They were on a lonely high way, and Roxas could barely see the lights of the city in the distance. Then, he gasped.

"Stop the car!" Roxas shrieked, and Axel pulled over to the side quickly, and Kairi barely missed smashing her head on the side of the car.

"What the hell? I could've gotten a concussion. Why did we stop?" She barked, smoothing down her hair and patting her head to see if it was okay.

Without warning, Roxas jumped out of the car, asking for a flashlight. Xion handed it out to him, and he turned it on, examining the area around him. On one side of the highway, there were stretches of trees, and a steep slope led down to a small gulley, which was near a fast running river that ran along beside the highway and eventually through the city they were trying to get to.

"What's the matter, Roxas?" Xion said nervously, treading slowly behind him as he lowered himself down the slope, grabbing onto trees as he went.

"I saw something silver." Roxas mumbled to himself, and he shouted for Kairi and Axel to stay by the car.

"You saw something silver? And that constitutes a good reason to go down into a gulley at the side of a highway that we know nothing about?"

Roxas ignored Xion, shining the flash light below him. The first thing that had caught his attention in the car was a whole line of young trees that looked like they had been mowed down. Then, a silver flash caught his eye. Roxas had to see what it was. He felt a sudden foreboding as he tread deeper and deeper down into the slope. Then Xion gasped, and Roxas whipped his head towards her.

A few feet below them, a tour bus lay on its side, with the windows on it completely smashed. Roxas quickened his pace, and slid down beside it, looking inside. Xion grasped hold of his hand, and held on tightly as he inspected the tour bus. She whimpered in dismay as he climbed down inside the bus, and started to look around.

His breath was heavy as he looked around for something- for anything- that could help him figure out what this was all about. Then, he noticed something, and his heart almost stopped.

It was Ven's duffle bag, lying half open, with its contents strewn about around it. Roxas heard Xion say 'oh' behind him, and he turned around to see her holding up a poster of Ven's band, 'Birth by Sleep.'

Roxas fell to his knees, and ran his hands through his hair. His heart was beating so fast he could hardly keep up with it. Ven had come by here.

"Roxas, we need to go. Don't ask me why, I just know it. We need to get out of here." Xion said urgently, and Roxas nodded.

Then, they both jumped out of the tour bus, and onto the slope, running as fast as they could up to the car. Roxas thought he could feel the wind trying to drag him back, and he plunged on up to the van.

As soon as Axel was in sight, they screamed for him to start the car up, and he and Kairi jumped back into the vehicle, and revved it up. Roxas and Xion pounced onto the middle seat, and shut the side door. As soon as Axel was sure everyone was in, he whizzed out back onto the highway, and drove fast. Only thirty minutes later did everyone start to calm down, and Roxas clutched his chest, trying to calm down.

"What the hell happened there?" Axel shouted to Roxas, and the boy shook his head.

"That silver flash I saw? It was a tour bus. It was my brother's bands tour bus. They've been here." Roxas said through ragged breaths, and Axel nodded uncomfortably.

"You shouldn't have gone down there." Axel said darkly, and Roxas chuckled.

"I'd never have known what happened to my brother if I hadn't."

Kairi shook her head. "What's so wrong with that, Axel?"

"Animals are born with a survival instinct- it's bred into them. Fight or flight, that kind of stuff. But it's not just that. It's like the way animals get all angsty before natural disasters and stuff like that- the way they can almost tell what's going to happen. Humans have ignored it for so long that they can hardly feel it when it happens. But I know what's gonna happen now." Axel said sharply. Xion looked scared.

"What do you think's gonna happen, Axel?" Kairi asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.

Axel looked straight ahead again. "I didn't like this place the minute I got here. It wasn't just the mood that was getting me down. That being said, if we're gonna leave, we gotta leave for good."

Roxas chuckled angrily, shaking his head, and Axel looked back at him in the rearview mirror.

"If we go back there, we may never get out again."

There was silence for a moment, and then Kairi burst out laughing. She looked frustrated and scared, but she refused to let on.

"What a crap story, Axel. You should've told _that _one at the camp site, not here. And Roxas added a nice touch. Your brothers tour bus? What a joke…"

Xion was as pale as a ghost, and in the moonlight, odd shadows twisted the emotions on her face, and made her look different.

"Maybe this whole place is just trying to mess with us for fun." Roxas sighed to himself, and fell asleep as the lights of the city closed in around them.


End file.
